Pizza, that is.



Shakeys Pizza, Novato, CA January, 1965, 24 years old, just off the boat from over 4 years overseas in the Far East and Southeast Asia.
__________________

Pizza Hut

Wabash, Indiana about 1978. I was about 12 or 13 yrs old.

Man I remember Mom making them at home from scratch long before I got a store bought version

I don't remember my 1st , must not of been very good.


Mike

Store bought version was in the mid 60's at Pizza Hut

probably Jim Dandy's pizza joint, but can't be sure as food most of the time is not memorable enough for me to note it.


there's some other firsts however that I'll always remember

Ain't that the truth!

My mom would make it and home and it was great. On special occasions we would get to got Aurelio's Pizza when it was in an old shop in Homewood IL, circa 72.(I was 8) http://aureliospizza.com

A few years ago we went back for the first time since we moved in 1980 and it was every bit as good as I remember. It still defines pizza for me.

I remember being kinda surprised that there were actually stores in big cities that made pizza. Ours were made from a kit that came in a little yellow box, Jeno's if I recall correctly. We loved em and they were often requested for birthdays.

Bill's Pizza Place in Stevens Point, WI around September 1962. I think I have the name correct, and I have to say it was love at first bite.

Roma's

Wafer-thin, a wisp of sauce, sprinkle of cheese, a hint of pepperoni (or sausage), the only vegetables were on the cover's picture - and they were great.

My Mom had a friend who worked for Roma's, and would supply us with broken, or damged "pies". I didn't know there were pizzas with inch-thick ingredients 'til I was older, and on my own.

My mom made her pizza from a Chef-BOY-AR DEE kit. Don't remember the first time I ate pizza at a restaurant.

1954 at age 7 at Festina's on S. Virginia Ave. Reno NV. It was owned and run by an old local Italian family, and the food was fantastic.

Back in the fifties my mom used to make 'em with those "do it yourself" things where you got all the needed stuff in one package and made it at home. First one I ever remember from a pizza shop was in 1962 or 63 when we travelled about 50 miles to the V.A. hospital in Batavia NY to visit a great uncle who was a WWI veteran and had a minor operation. Dad took us to Pontillo's Pizza and it was great. By the later 60's IIRC Pontillo's had expanded to the Rochester area where I grew up and while they were still good; by that time they had a lot of competition.

Around 1968 at Pasquale's Pizza on Woodward Ave. in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, just south of the round bank and just around the corner from Skateland skating rink.

Pretty soon after that we also discovered the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pizza kits and we'd add goodies like mushrooms, black olives, bacon, sausage and such to them.

This and Lime Kool-Aid at every birthday party....

Pizza Hut, fall of 1976, in college.... boy, what a revelation to a kid from the hills of Arkansas!

Pittsburgh Pa 1960

My first, too . . . without the lime Kool-Aid, though. The powdered parmesan in those boxes was nasty ! ! !

Somewhere back in the mid- to late fifties, Dad, Mom, and I went down to the Southside Cafe for supper. Dad looked at the menu, asked what this "Pizza Pie" was (I imagine it was frozen) and to the complete and total shock of Mom, did something adventuresome and risky by ordering it. As I recall, he was less than impressed. I imagine that I had a taste, but I can't recall anything about the taste.

We were raised on moose, and garden veggies....mother wouldn't feed us that pizza pie. I had my first taste in the early 70s at a pizza hut, still prefer a nice chunk of moose meat. :-)

+1
Wifey says make it +2....

well good lordy yes

give me a moose roast with taters, carrots, onions and celery and you can keep all the danged pizza for yourself


but will say those take home and bake pizza's from Papa Murhpys are pretty danged good.

I walked in when they were first opened after buying groceries at the Safeway and when I saw the prices and you had to cook them yourself walked right out without ordering anything. F that says me


couple of years later we're at a party and I'm like "where'd this pizza come from, this is pretty decent?" yep Papa Murphy's


but the best pizza I've had was in Chicago, good eats in that burgh

Pizio's Drive Inn on South Federal Highway in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, sometime around 1957 or 58 with my parents. I remember it burned my tongue but it was great. They had an indoor part where we ate and a drive in complete with car hops on the other side.

They were a chain, this one is in Key West but looks similar to the old Ft. Lauderdale one.

Remember Mom making pizza on a large rectangle baking pan, had to been in the late 60's. Hamburger, onion and bacon is still my favorite pie, just cant eat it any longer.

I'm thinking it was probably Pizza Hut sometime in the late 80's as I'm in my late twenties. I don't remember but I love italian type foods so I must have enjoyed it.

Lots more memorable "firsts" than pizza pie.

Holy $hit...Shakey's Pizza, I forgot all about it. I loved it as a kid (8-10 years old). They had a big window where you could watch the guys make the pizza's and a player piano banging away in the background. That was in 1970-1972. Thanks for the memory jn!!!

Mike

Shakey's - you didn't mention the grease/oil pooled on the pizza.

Don't remember but at least for that one I bet I was sober.

I have no actual memory of eating pizza for the first time in my life. My family moved to Chicago around late 1953-ish, so I'd guess my very first taste of pizza was not too long after and most definitely was a real Chicago style pizza at a pizza parlor.

Through the next 11-12 years that we lived up there a fair number of Chicago style pizza were consumed by me.

Over the years since leaving Chicago, I've eaten plenty of pretty good pizza, several real good pizza, and I've eaten a few dang good pizza but I have yet to taste any other pizza their equal anywhere else since.

Shakeys!!!!! Man O man, that brings back memories. I don't remember when or where my very first pizza was, but as far as I'm concerned, the first one I remember is the Shakey's in San Jose, Ca.

Early '70s. Besides family outings every few months, the little league baseball, football, and soccer always had their dinners their (I'm a tad younger than you I think. )

Every pizza I've ever had has been judged by those Shakey's pizzas. And NONE have compared. They just don't make them like that anymore.

For those interested, the history of Shakey's. First one was Sacramento, Ca. I was surprised to find out there are still plenty out there. Just none where I travel.

Shakey's Pizza History

The Jet Drive In just outside the gate at Cherry Point MCAS in North Carolina. I was 20 years old and it was in 1958. Every Thursday night the E Club on Cherry Point would sell 9 inch pizzas (made fresh) for 10 cents. Pepperoni pizzas were 15 cents.

Yep. I'm a Shakeys Pizza fanboy ... or was ... until they closed

Redding, Ca back in the 70's. That was THE place to get a pizza. To this day I still search for a pizza that comes close to what Shakey's made but with no luck.

First I can remember was at Shakey's in Kansas City.

In HS I was in a German band that played Friday and Saturday nights at the Reno NV Shakey's. We got $50.00 to divide up per night and all the pizza and soft drink we wanted afterward.

I also listened to Shakey's Whoopie Hour late at night. Doug Pledger was the host.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-radio-broadcaster-Doug-Pledger-dies-3219301.php

DJML and Burt--
Amen to that, brother. I bought a copy from Burt a couple of
Sacramentos ago and got him to autograph it for me. It's not only
well written, but intersting and humorous and informative about those
times decades ago in California.
Actually, Shakey had a very large influence on me. In the early
1960s i was going to the University of Nevada in Reno, and there used
to be a radio program called "Shakey's Whoopee Hour" that i listened
to every chance i got. Not only did they play cuts of bits by the
latest comedians (Shelley Berman, Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, etc.), but
they played a lot of dixieland and other great stuff. There's no
show like it any more that i know of.
Come to think of it, Shakey's is also responsible for my liking
anchovies. I (and other dissolute reprobates, i.e., musicians) used
to spend a lot of time at the Shakey's in west Reno drinking beer and
eating pizza, and it came to pass that the only thing i could still
taste after drinking three pitchers of beer was the anchovies.
There's also the times that good ol' Barrie Moore (departed from this
plane of existence 30 years ago), all 6-foot-6 and 350 pounds of him,
used to win bets at Shakey's by opening his throat and pouring down
an entire pitcher of beer at once. Then he would blithely smuggle
three or four empty pitchers out of Shakey's under his voluminous
jacket without any of the staff being able to tell. He was also the
one who, because he was too big to march (no uniform would fit, and
he played bassoon anyway), was put in charge of distributing the
uniforms to the band. One so-called wit (about half) in the band
asked him how to tell what size of spats to wear (but there was only
one size), and without missing a beat Barrie said, "Simple, just
measure your tibia and divide by two." Ah, the good old days of
Shakey's . . .

Dan

Shakeys Pizza I believe in the late 60's was the first storebought pizza...

from a boxed version: Appian Way Pizza

A dough mix, canned sauce, grated parm. Made me a tough little kid.

First Pizza for real: Straw Hat Pizza approximately 1969.

this!

Far as I can tell, the closest one to you might be Redlands, Ca. There's also one in Mexico City.

Sunday night was pizza night, and mom would fry sausage to put on top of a Chef Boyardee pizza. We would then eat pizza and watch Bonanza. As far back as I can remember was around 1962. Shakeys was the first commercial pizza place I remember in Oklahoma City.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Iz2AW_0EScg[/video]

Same here for the kit pizza!

Setting?
Back in the sticks. Very rural (then) dirt road smack dab in the middle of Minnesota. Lake Ann, we lived in an old rented farm house with a hand full of eccentric ghost. Couple of ghost lived under the outhouse (maybe they were monsters? Talking a long time ago), to this day I can 'hold-it' if I have to.

I remember the kit, they were something special, and the dough was set near the wood stove, ghost didn't like it near the wood stove.

Our version was made with Velveda cheese, and maybe some chopped up weeneers!

Burnt on the bottom, raw on the top, every time! Just the way I liked them!

Served with lime jello with a can of fruit-cocktail mixed in. I really liked the green grapes from the fruit cocktail, my sister would pick the grapes out of her jello for me! For that I kept her from ghost.

She was on her own when came to monsters, but we made it apparently!

WOW. That triggered a memory I had all but forgotten about. Thanks! I used to get to help make those at home when I was very young. As far as store-bought, it'd have to be from Boston's North End and a place called the European, from a very young age.

Also used to get pies from Pino's, Santarpios and Regina's, as well as Stevie's. Boston has no shortage of quality pie makers, and they get them started young here.

Church youth group back in 78 One of the more sophisticated kids suggested it and we built some from a kit.Thin hard crust some kinda dried up salami stuff, cheddar cheese with the most disgusting salty tomato paste, blugh! I remember some of the kids raving about how good it was but I just couldn't get into it.I still ain't crazy about pizza

Antoinetta's

Meatball subs were fantastic!

Best pizza ever?

Sea-food pizza at a place called The Cow in Queenstown NZ !

Thank you for this thread, and joggeling good memories!

I think the last time I re-lived the memories of kit pizza was on a very special trip to NZ !

What a way to appreciate things now, then comparing them to things way back then!